Old Romantics

Ashes to Ashes is back, packed with 80s relics: jumpsuits, Morph, Marathon bars and men in eyeliner. Although all Philip Glenister remembers are the crimes against style…

If you ask Philip Glenister how he remembers the 80s, he has a one-word answer. “Brown,” he replies, adding “with hessian overtones.”

Yes, as Ashes to Ashes returns for a second series, its star confesses her doesn’t have particularly fond memories of the decade in which it’s set. And one thing's for sure: he wasn’t behind the wheel of a high-powered Audi Quattro.

“At the start of the 80s I used to nick my mum’s car when I needed wheels,” he recalls glumly. “It was a beige Ford Fiesta. Doesn’t get much worse, does it? Then I got my own car, which was a Mini Clubman. IT was brown. To be honest that’s sort of how I remember that era: a sort of shit brown. Some of the music was fucking awful, too. I can’t believe that Ashes to Ashes has helped make new romantic popular again. I mean, Spandau Ballet have sold out the O2 Arena, haven’t they? All I can say to everyone is that I’m very, very sorry!”

As it happens, Glenister himself was working in the music business in the early 80s with entrepreneur Robert Stigwood, in London’s Mayfair. “I was only a very junior runner, but I do remember there being lots of money around; Old Stiggy had become a tax exile in Bermuda. He showed me pictures of the yacht he'd bought from Aristotle Onassis. My biggest moment was being on reception when the Bee Gees came in. They walked through the door in order of seniority and height: Barry at the front, Robin behind and little Maurice holding onto their coat tails. There were big parties too. Robert used to take over a cocktail bar called Coconut Grove, just off Oxford Street. Elaine Paige would turn up and lots of other stars. Not a very glamorous time for me clothes-wise, though: mainly drainpipe trousers and winkle-pinkers. Mind you, I did have a flying jacket I was rather proud of, and my neckerchiefs. I had three: one blue, one red, one green – depending on my mood!”

People often ask if being in an 80s series brings it all back, and I have to say – not really! I feel that Gene Hunt is very much a man of the 70s. He’s trying hard to be an 80s person, but his heart’s just not in it.

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